Book Review: The Year that Changed Everything by Cathy Kelly

The Year that Changed Everything…

About the Book:

Ginger isn’t spending her thirtieth the way she would have planned. Tonight might be the first night of the rest of her life – or a total disaster.

Sam is finally pregnant after years of trying. When her waters break on the morning of her fortieth birthday, she panics: forget labour, how is she going to be a mother?

Callie is celebrating her fiftieth at a big party in her Dublin home. Then a knock at the door mid-party changes everything.

My Thoughts:

It’s been a very long time between Cathy Kelly’s for me and I have no explanation for this. I loved her novels and read them voraciously in my late twenties and early thirties. Not sure why I stopped, but when my bookclub suggested her latest, The Year that Changed Everything, here at last was a reason for me to get back in touch with the words of Cathy Kelly. And it was a warm and wonderful return.

The Year that Changed Everything follows three women who share the same birthday and are aged 10 years apart, Callie 50, Sam 40, and Ginger 30. These women don’t know each other for the majority of the novel, but their lives intersect towards the end in a fateful moment that bonds them. Each of the women’s lives change on their milestone birthday and the ripple effect of this sets their year in motion, with each of them forging a new path and learning so much about themselves along the way.

The Year that Changed Everything has all of Cathy’s trademark warmth and humour, along with all of the feels that come with the big moments. This is life-lit, the new catchy term for what used to be dubbed women’s fiction, at its best. With three distinct voices to carry you through the novel, you’ll find this one to be a comfortable and entertaining read, testimony as to why Cathy Kelly is still one our favourite storytellers.

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About the Author:

Cathy Kelly is a number one international bestselling author. She worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist, and has published eleven novels. She is an Ambassador for Unicef in Ireland, helping to raise awareness of the plight of twelve million children orphaned across Africa through AIDS. She lives in Wicklow with her family.

The Year that Changed Everything
Published by Hachette Australia
Released 22nd February 2018

I’m going on a daunting trip alone to Torremolinos on Wednesday just after burying my dear mother two weeks ago, is this book good for the sunbed on the beach in spain, your review sounds fab and just like Cathy Kelly’s older books which I read around the same age group as you and haven’t read them in years